The Tucson Theatre Announcements List is a monitored e-mail list. Notices from Tucson area theatre companies, filmmakers and others are forwarded to the list members. These notices include auditions, casting calls, openings and other announcements of interest to actors, directors, techies and theatre lovers in our community. This Blog contains an archive of recent posts to the list. For more information go to http://tucsonstage.com

I am so happy to announce that The Migration Project will be at ZUZI! Theatre for this November! It has been a long and incredibly beautiful journey, gathering stories from refugee, immigrant and indigenous communities, offering interactive installations at the Tucson Museum of Art and with The Hopi Foundation's Owl and Panther Project, working with our devising team to order and sequence word and gesture into performance, and of course, writing a script that I am truly proud of. We are in the final stages of fundraising and have launched our Indiegogo Campaign. I do hope you'll take a look at the pitch video, which will give you some idea of what we've been up to. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-migration-project--2/x/8730421

I have never made a direct appeal before, but here it is- we need to raise this money to pay artists, up the performance value through better technology, and acquire wardrobe and props. Please take a moment and review the campaign and donate whatever you can. If you are not in a position to donate, please do pass the word on about this important work.

Celebrating its fifth year in 2014, The Loft Film Fest is dedicated to showcasing the best independent, foreign and classic films, as well as celebrating the work of established and emerging directors, writers, producers and actors. The Loft Film Fest, through its eclectic and diverse programming, aims not only to expand the audience for cinema that challenges, inspires and entertains, but also to honor those artists whose talent and passion bring that cinema to life.

ABOUT THE FESTIVALDescribed byFilmmaker Magazineas being “geared truly toward cinephiles of nearly every stripe,” and praised for its “phantasmagorical programming … and astute choice of guests,” The Loft Film Fest was created in 2010 as a showcase for the very best independent, foreign and classic cinema. For four days in October, The Loft Film Fest provides an intimate and unique setting for film fans to experience hand-selected festival favorites from Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, etc., and to meet internationally-renowned artists from the world of independent cinema.

Special guests of The Loft Film Fest have included acclaimed contemporary filmmakers such as Carlos Reygadas, Alex Cox, Chris Eyre, Don Coscarelli, The Zellner Brothers, Bobcat Goldthwait, Kirby Dick and Richard Kelly; celebrated actors including Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Robert Carradine and Udo Kier; and industry legends such as Roger Corman, recipient of the 2012 “Lofty Lifetime Achievement Award.”

The Loft Film Fest, produced by the award-winning, non-profit Loft Cinema (a member of the Sundance Art House Project and named “Best Movie Theatre in Tucson” by readers of the Tucson Weekly every year since 2002), is fiercely committed to continuing its tradition of bringing world-class film festival programming to Tucson, connecting audiences with artists and celebrating the unique spirit of independent cinema.

Production Description: Travel Television Pilot being filmed in beautiful Tucson, AZ. While there are many travel shows on air right now (and they are popular!), we are putting together one that has its own marketable twist. Pay is deferred upon sale of the Pilot, but small and reasonable expenses can be paid. Sorry for the discretion—we want to make sure we're the first on the market with it. But this will be a beautifully (and professionally) done pilot, and will be a great addition to your reel.

Roles Casting:"Mom": Female, 30-45, Caucasian: This Mom automatically has her own family! This Mom is a fun (and patient) traveler who is on vacation with her husband and 3 kids to beautiful Tucson, Arizona—doing all sorts of fun family things, such as sight-seeing on Mt. Lemmon, visiting the Pima Air and Space museum, playing around Trail-dust Town, and hanging around the hotel pool/patio. Bonus points for lighter-colored hair (blonde, dirty-blonde, lt. brown, etc).

Audition Format: Please double check that you are available all shoot dates (Sat, Oct. 11th, Sunday, Oct. 12th and part of the day Monday (either early morning or late afternoon for around 3- hours). If you are available, please send a headshot and resume to Producer, Rosie Z. at RosieZwaduk@gmail.com

photo by James BlairAnthony (Nick Trice) and Caroline (Lucille Petty) discover more than poetry while reading Walt Whitman

The very mystery of life is at the heart of “I and You.” An intense and excellent production is running at Invisible Theatre, with Nick Trice and Lucille Petty giving compelling performances as a pair of teenagers fighting for more understanding of the unseen forces that shape their lives.

Petty plays the high school senior Caroline, grown increasingly bitter that she has been waiting for a liver transplant since infancy. Most of her life has been spent in her bedroom, literally, where the phenomenon of social media has come along to connect her to the world – or at least to give her that illusion.

For it has become the world as filtered through Facebook, and her impressions of the world reflect what she has read on those highly opinionated pages.

So it isn't a surprise her opinions have that same flinty cynicism. When vigorously good-natured Anthony (Trice) suddenly bursts into her bedroom sanctuary to start the play, she wails on him with the same over-the-top anger common to Facebook.

Caught off balance, Anthony instinctively strikes back with his own unfiltered emotions. Graceful phrasing will not be a part of this abrasive conversation.

For that, playwright Lauren Gunderson introduces Walt Whitman. Anthony announces he has been assigned by their teacher to be Caroline's partner to complete an assignment on Whitman's poetry collection “Leaves of Grass.”

The selection of Whitman is no casual choice, for the vast sweep of the poet's sensual vision matches perfectly the teen questions of what life is all about, what is their purpose here, and why must Caroline be kept in her bedroom when Anthony gets to play basketball, learn the saxophone and fall in love with jazz.

Struggling with the grandeur of Whitman's enthusiasm for America, expressed in English that is practically a foreign language to the compressed phrases of today's Twitter-speak, becomes their common enemy.

Caroline hates poetry, particularly the kind that relates to nothing in her world. Anthony, though he lives a more faceted life at school, hates the way Whitman keeps switching his use of pronouns.

Slowly their mutual dislikes become endearingly adolescent affection for each other....setting up the entry to a quick-flip surprise ending that will catch in your throat.

The acting, the timing and, yes, the choreography are executed with a sincerity and intensity rare on any Tucson stage. Trice and Petty hit these peaks so naturally, with such ease, living in the imagery like their own school clothes, they take the playwright's confrontational dialogue to a higher level of eavesdropping.

For everyone who loves true theater, “I and You” must not be missed.

The remaining performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3-4; 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5. All tickets are $30, with discounts available. Student rush is $15, 30 minutes before show time, when available. For details and reservations, 520-882-9721, or visit www.invisibletheatre.com

During this lecture demonstration, the audience will be treated to an in depth exploration of mariachi by leading mariachi scholars and performers. By the end of the lecture, audience members will have a complete understanding of the origins, development and elements of mariachi. This educational event will be fun and energetic as music and conversation collide and illuminate this great artistic tradition.

Arizona Opera will open its 2014-2015 season by presenting the world’s first mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna. This emotional work revolves around a modern immigrant family struggling with issues of home, family and identity. This opera is sung in both English and Spanish, and audiences will be enthralled as the passionate worlds of mariachi and opera join together to become one electric, theatrical experience.

In conjunction with this groundbreaking work, Arizona Opera will be presenting a Hispanic Heritage Festival in both Phoenix and Tucson leading up to the performances. During these events, Arizona Opera will be facilitating conversations, providing demonstrations, and hosting celebrations of Hispanic culture. Members of our community will be brought together to celebrate our cultural differences in order to find the common ground that unites us all.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

DIANE VAN DEURZEN & LISA OTEYat the HOG PIT!

Attention meat lovers! Diane & Lisa have been invited to sing at the Hog Pit Smokehouse. This is a cool jazz & blues club on the east side of town, near Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon. They have everything you could hope for in a smokehouse: brisket, pulled pork, chicken, you name it. They smoke their meat for 12 hours. So good! It doesn't need sauce but if you love to lather it on, they have several kinds of BBQ sauce to choose from. The Hog Pit also has a full bar so you can wash it all down with your favorite beverage.

Diane Van Deurzen & Lisa Otey will sing at the Hog Pit Smokehouse on Sun., Oct. 5 & 19, starting at 5:30pm. If you have a group of 6 or more, you can call to make a reservation, 722.4302. Come out for a bluesy night at the Hog Pit!

Sunday, October 19, Diane & Lisa will perform as part of Jazz Sunday at St. Marks Presbyterian, 3809 E. 3rd. This is a wonderful annual event produced by drummer and retired minister, Mike Smith. Jazz Sunday starts at 11am.

At the end of October, come on out to Z Mansion for the next concert in the Lisa Otey and Friends series. NYC cabaret artist, Brooke Davis, will join us for one night only in the parlor of Z Mansion, Mon., Oct. 27, at 7pm. Brooke is a hilarious perfomer and singer. Known for her work at SALOC and Gaslight, she is now doing a one-woman show in NYC. Tickets for Lisa Otey & Friends featuring Brooke Davis are $15, available online, www.lisaotey.com. You can also make a reservation by phone, 520.370.5912, and pay at the door.

Once in awhile, science & fantasy meet. This is one of those times. Come see a comedy play as much about the beginning of life as the end in a 66-seat theatre for only $7. This will be a very unique & fun-filled date night that lends itself to conversation. It's affordable, live entertainment & you'll take credit for being creative & interesting. (Play contains mature content & profanity. No children 12 & under permitted. Teens welcome with parent or adult guardian.)

F O R I M M E D I A T E R E L E A S E

CONTACT: Lisa Pierce, Dir. of Marketing & Development • 520.626.2686 • lisapierce@email.arizona.eduUniversity of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television

A comedy as much about the beginning of life as the end, boom puts the last woman, a journalist who hates the idea of babies, and last man, a gay marine biologist, on Earth together in an underground lab after a comet strikes. Will these two repopulate the planet? And who is this third character – a woman acting as a museum-type guide for this end-of-the-world tale, playing with levers and buttons? The play roams across billions of years and explores how randomness influences not only the course of an individual, but all of those living on Earth as we know it.

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb is the playwright-in-residence at the Z Space in San Francisco. His play, boom, has been performed at numerous theatres in the United States.

Cassy Crandall is a senior in the BA Theatre program. This will be her School of Theatre, Film & Television directing debut!

See the story that owns the tag line: “Sex to Change the Course of the World,” and be

Warner Brothers is holding a casting call for paid extras to be in an upcoming feature which will be filming mid-November near Deming, NM. Ages 8 and over are needed to recreate an African village scene (entire families welcome.) Payment is $100 per person, per day for up to 8 hours overtime paid after 8 hours. Hotels and meals provided for extras cast from outside the area. All applicants must be legal to work in the US. TO SUBMIT AS A FAMILY: current picture with everyone’s names, DOBs, and contact person’s cell phone number and e-mail address. Submit in ONE e-mail, not separately. TO SUBMIT AS AN INDIVIDUAL: current picture, e-mail address and cell phone number, DOB, height, and clothing sizes. PLEASE E-MAIL ALL SUBMISSIONS TO: wbextrascasting@gmail.com. Your submission will be responded to via E-mail so check your In-Box often.

Pima Community College West's Advanced Cinematography class is holding a casting call for non-SAG male and female actors, aged 18 to 60, for roles as fast food employees, customers and extras in the short film American Burger. Auditions will be held October 3rd from 3pm to 8pm, and October 4th from noon to 5pm. Please have a 1-2 minute comedic monologue prepared. You will also be asked to read from the film's script. If you have a resume or headshot, please bring that as well. Location filming will take place November 7, 8, 9 and 11, 2014. There is no monetary compensation but meals will be provided. For more information, call or text Alex Anaya at ranaya2@mail.pima.edu or 520.873.8168.

This Off-Broadway hit was inspired by the playwright's trip to a modern art museum in Baghdad in August 1993, and it details the lives of nine Iraqi women that span the decades between the first and second Gulf Wars and occupation. Described by The New Yorker as "an example of how art can remake the world," it is a portrait of the extraordinary (and ordinary) lives of a whole cross-section of Iraqi women: a sexy painter, a radical Communist, doctors, exiles, wives, and lovers. This work delves into the many conflicting aspects of what it means to be a woman in a country overshadowed by war.

Winner of a 2005 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Special Commendation and Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show.

"…a triumph…thrilling… writing...marked with wit and by a scrupulous attention to the details of character." ~ The New Yorker

"...not a stodgily earnest piece of documentary theater, and therein lies its singular force and compulsion: It is persuasive precisely because it is beautiful." ~ Wall Street Journal

"…powerful, impassioned, vivid, memorable…The voices are a study in contrasts: vivid and subdued, sophisticated and naïve, seductive and standoffish. But they cohere to form a powerful collective portrait of suffering and endurance." ~ NY Times

Bury yourself in a totally terrifying town with outrageous live shows, disturbing haunts, and a collection of hideous live characters

including the GARGOYLES!

NIGHTFALL Preview Weekend – $16.50

Friday, Sept 26 thru Sunday, Sept 28 (ONLY)

Preview Weekend Tickets available only at the Gate

NIGHTFALL GENERAL ADMISSION

Oct. 2-31 Tickets are available at the Nightfall Gate

Adults (Age 12 and older) – $26 (plus tax)

Children (Age 9-11) – $21 (plus tax)

Children (Age 8 & under) – Free

SCARY Discounts!

ANY DAY ONLINE GROUP TICKETS DISCOUNT

Buy 10 to 49 Nightfall tickets ONLINE for just $21 per ticket

(plus tax)

Nightfall Hours

Thursdays & Sundays 6:00pm – 10:00 pm

Fridays & Saturdays 6:00pm – Midnight

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ALL NEW SCARES, FRIGHTS, SHOWS, ACTION

COMPLIMENTARY PASSES, ONLINE OR PRE-PURCHASED TICKETS

FOR OLD TUCSON ARE NOT VALID FOR NIGHTFALL

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Warning: Due to the subject matter and realism of Nightfall, this event may not be, and most likely is not, appropriate for younger people. Unlike other fly-by-night Halloween operations, Old Tucson takes our employees and customers’ safety seriously. Nightfall haunts are inspected by the Fire Department and are reviewed by Pima County Risk Management for compliance to all applicable codes.

Psst! Hey, ladies. Want an opportunity to introduce your man to a night of theater, and be guaranteed he will come home happy?

Arizona Theatre Company is offering exactly that in its intellectual-sounding “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” the Broadway comedy hit by Christopher Durang (“Baby with the Bathwater,” “The Marriage of Bette and Boo”) now playing at the downtown Temple of Music and Art.

Don't be fooled by those three names from the early 20th century work of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It is true that Durang's play is peppered with more Chekhov references than a fine steak au poivre, but don't worry.

You don't have to know your seagulls from your cherry orchards to get the jokes because everything unrolls non-stop like a string of highlights from comedy skits in the Golden Age of Television – especially the Carol Burnett show.

Durang's fondness for period TV gets massaged like a Kentucky Derby race horse in this 2 1/2-hour romp through the pop culture stew that was popular when the boomers (including Durang) were pre-teens.

In fact the show peaks in its 11th hour moment with Vanya's (Charles Janasz) monologue rant of longing for the good old days of postage stamps and pressure cookers, delivered with such engaging energy the audience filled the Temple with applause.

While Queen of the B Movies, Masha (Suzanne Bouchard), has the flashiest role, all four title characters form an ensemble that equally shares the load of carrying this production.

Sonia (Suzanne Warmanen) is the Everyperson here, frumpy and middle-aged, now coming to believe her entire life has been wasted house-sitting this vast country lodge when she should have been out leading an interesting life while hunting for a man.

The opening scene is sketch comedy at its finest, with Vanya and Sonya as siblings slogging through their own inertia, just trying to have a cup of coffee together first thing in the morning.

Sure, you can say the portrayal of such deep melancholy is Chekhov's bread and butter. But that isn't necessary to say. It sounds pretentious, which is kind of Durang's point.

Comedy is the thing here, like preppy schoolboys having fun making jokes about their homework in English class.

Bouchard gets just the right line as self-absorbed Masha. Eschewing all the comedy stereotypes for such a part, she fills this superficial character with surface – a lot of surface.

Often times, though, the biggest laughs were sparked by the physical comedy of finely muscled Joshua James Campbell in the dumb blond role of Spike. He is Masha's young boy toy, full of puppy dog eagerness to please most everyone he meets.

That would include Nina (Ali Rose Dachis), the even-younger neighbor whose role includes some parallels to Nina in Chekhov's “The Seagull.”

In to spice up the dialogue with some Louisiana bayou voodoo and fortune telling is Isabell Monk O'Connor as Cassandra, outspoken maid of this country lodge and proud of her connection to the otherworldly.

English teachers all over Tucson's metro area will be having the time of their lives catching more pop references to eponymous moments of the Russian playwright's work than they found in Don McLean's “American Pie.” ATC's dramaturge should take a moment to list them all, just to see if anyone can run the table.

But, hey, as noted above you don't need to appreciate any of Durang's word play to enjoy this lively production. This cast with Joel Sass as director keeps the energy high, the body language overflowing and often over the top. What's not to like when there is no thinking required.

“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” continues through Oct. 4, with performances at various times Tuesdays through Sundays. Tickets are $32-$67; discounts and student rush tickets are available. For details and reservations, 520-622-2823, or visit www.arizonatheatre.org

A "Theater Troupes Organizing Party" for actors age 5 to 95, directors and
techies, will be October 4, at 4pm, and October 6, at 7pm, at the Red Barn
Theater, 948 N. Main Ave. After refreshments, people can look at lots of
scripts, and self organize into children's and community theater troupes, or
try out for "Lakme", an opera by Leo Delibes, or "Elfin Antics in Santa's
Workshop", both performing late November, early December. Bring list of
schedule conflicts. Details at http://redbarn-theater.angelfire.com or 520
622-6973.

Notes: Elfin Antics in Santa's Workshop, by Rosemary Snow, is an
internationally performed play, set to perform in Bogota, Columbia and
Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka, December of 2014, and did perform December 2013 in
Ballymanus, Ireland and Joundalup, Western Australia.
It is marketed by Rosemary's daughter Jeannette Jaquish at
www.theaterfunscripts.com .

LaughingStock Comedy Company is partnering withthe TVHS Theatre Department for a unique show made up of fresh, original scenes. This touring improv troupe has performed over 1500 public appearances throughout North America.

With student and audience input incorporatedinto the night, YOU get to be a part of the fun!!!!

Don’t miss this one-time-only event. There willalso be a student fashion show, silent auction, and refreshments for purchase.

All proceeds from this evening will help purchase much-needed curtains for the stage. Please join us for a FUNdraiser you’ll be sure to remember!

WORLD PREMIEREThey Call Me A Heroby Guillermo ReyesBased on A Memoir by Daniel HernandezDirected by Barclay Goldsmith

Based on the memoirs of Daniel Hernandez, the 20 year old intern who saved Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford's life and became a national hero, THEY CALL ME A HERO examines the life of an unexpected hero thrown into a whirl-wind of publicity. As his private life becomes public,Daniel's family and upbringing in South Tucson provides the backbone that empowers him.

For more information on They Call Me A Hero, cast and crew Click here.